Defense Budget Alert

The Senate is readying a final $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package that would provide an additional $10.5 billion in defense spending.

As senators remain stalled over a $1.6 trillion coronavirus economic rescue package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is circulating her own draft bill that would provide more than $2.5 trillion in emergency funding, including nearly $8 billion in supplemental defense spending.

The National Guard Bureau chief this month said he was not consulted on the $3.8 billion reprogramming action taken by the Defense Department to fund President Trump's border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and the transfer will impact the Army National Guard's domestic operations portfolio.

The Air Force's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal reorganizes the service's science and technology accounts -- a "significant reform" that will allow researchers to be more agile moving forward, according to service acquisition chief Will Roper.

Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist said today major Pentagon "new-start" programs, including the Navy's Columbia-class submarine and the Army's new soldier night vision system, would be delayed should Congress pass a stopgap continuing resolution Oct. 1, rather than a regular budget for fiscal year 2021.

U.S. Special Operations Command has sent Congress a nearly $1 billion "unfunded priorities" list, which includes aircraft, precision munitions and communications systems mostly to support operations in the Middle East and Africa, according to "for official use only" documents obtained by Inside Defense.

ORLANDO, FL -- The Air Force is preparing to defend its fiscal year 2021 budget realignments to Congress, holding classified briefings with lawmakers and staffers ahead of hearings likely to expose the service's proposals to heavy scrutiny.

House lawmakers on Wednesday will hear from Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who will attempt to justify their fiscal year 2021 budget request amid political opposition to the Pentagon’s bankrolling of President Trump's border wall.

The Missile Defense Agency has provided Congress a $1.1 billion wish list to finance nine projects above and beyond the agency's $9.2 billion fiscal year 2021 budget request, additional undertakings that -- if funded -- would increase Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor procurement, hypersonic defense funding and buy an additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery.